Hi Alex,
I’ve coached many players in this type of situation before so understand exactly the issues you mean. What’s important in this situation is variation, and I mean not only when you attack in the pushing rally by changing the speed and spin as you mentioned. But also in the pushing, so trying to move them around but also in and out with a shorter push and then a longer push. This will help you engineer a chance to attack more quickly.
So when you do attack sometimes the slower shot with less spin players find more difficult as you mentioned. I feel the key is keeping things unpredictable so mixing up these shots in with the faster heavy spin ones so the opponent always has decisions to make. Also I would say the placement of this first attack is crucial, if they are counter attacking quickly, Harimoto style, then it’s vital to place the ball into the body or perhaps wide into the forehand when you attack. It’s very hard to counter quickly if your ball placement is strong. Finding the elbow/crossover is so often overlooked and not done enough and I think in this situation would really make a difference.
Also another quick tip is against players where you find yourself getting stuck in a lot of pushing rallies, be sure to throw in some long fast serves as a surprise and to open out the points straight away and avoid the pushing exchanges. Again really it’s all about variety and keeping your game unpredictable 🙂
Cheers, Tom
